German/Grammar
This is a compilation of data regarding the grammar of the German language. Please contribute by expanding the sections, verifying the accuracy of information or by simply sending us your suggestions. =Phonology= Consonants With approximately 25 phonemes, the German consonant system exhibits an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. One of the more noteworthy ones is the unusual affricate . Notes: #In the northern varieties, occurs before word stems with initial vowel. It is not considered a phoneme, but an optional boundary mark of word stems. #The phonemic status of affricates is controversial. The majority view accepts and , but not or the non-native ; some accept none, some accept all, and some accept all as well as other clusters such as . # and occur only in words of foreign origin. In certain varieties, they are replaced by and altogether. # is occasionally considered to be an allophone of , especially in Southern varieties of German. # and are traditionally regarded as allophones after front vowels and back vowels. For a more detailed analysis see below at [[#Ich-Laut and ach-Laut|''ich-Laut'' and ach-Laut]]. According to some analysis, is an allophone of after and according to some also after . # , and are in free variation with one another. is used mainly in Southern varieties. In the syllable coda, the allophone is used in many varieties, except in the South-West. #Some phonologists deny the phoneme and use instead, and instead of . The phoneme sequence is realized as when can start a valid onset of the next syllable whose nucleus is a vowel other than unstressed , , or . It becomes otherwise. Example: **''Diphthong'' : diphthongieren **''Englisch'' : Anglo **''Ganges'' ~ The voiceless stops , , are aspirated except when preceded by a sibilant. The obstruents are voiceless in the Southern varieties. ''Ich-Laut'' and ach-Laut The term ich-Laut refers to the voiceless palatal fricative , the term ach-Laut to the voiceless velar fricative . In German, these two sounds are allophones occurring in complementary distribution. The allophone occurs after back vowels and (for instance in Buch 'book'), the allophone after front vowels (for instance in ich 'I') and consonants (for instance in Furcht 'fear'). In loanwords, pronunciation of potential fricatives in onsets of stressed syllables vary: in the Northern varieties of standard German, it is , while in Southern varieties, it is , and in Western varieties, it is (for instance in China: vs. vs. ). The diminutive suffix ''-chen'' is always pronounced with an ich-Laut .Usually, this ending triggers umlaut (compare for instance Hund 'dog' to Hündchen 'little dog'), so theoretically, it could only occur after front vowels. However, in some comparatively recent coinings, there is no longer an umlaut, for instance in the word Frauchen 'mistress (of a dog)' (a diminutive of Frau 'woman'), so that a back vowel is followed by , even though normally it would be followed by a , as in rauchen 'to smoke'. This exception to the allophonic distribution is considered by some to be an effect of the morphemic boundary. However, many phoneticians believe that this is an example of phonemicization, where erstwhile allophones undergo a split into separate phonemes. The allophonic distribution of after front vowels and after other vowels is also found in other languages, such as Scots, in the pronunciation of light. However, it is by no means inevitable: Dutch, Yiddish, and many Southern German dialects retain in all positions. It is thus reasonable to assume that Old High German ih, the ancestor of modern ich, was pronounced with rather than . And while it is impossible to know for certain whether Old English words such as niht (modern night) were pronounced with or , is likely (see Old English phonology#Consonant allophones). Despite the phonetic history, the complementary distribution of and in modern Standard German is better described as backing of after a back vowel, rather than fronting of after a front vowel, because is used in onsets (Chemie ) and after consonants (Molch ), and is thus considered the basic sound. According to Kohler, the German ach-Laut is further differentiated into two allophones, and : occurs after (for instance in Buch 'book') and after (for instance in Bach 'brook'), while either or may occur after , with predominating. Fortis-lenis pairs Various German consonants occur in pairs at the same place of articulation and in the same manner of articulation, namely the pairs , , , , . These pairs are often called fortis-lenis pairs, since describing them as voiced/voiceless pairs is inadequate. With certain qualifications, are also considered fortis-lenis pairs. The fortis plosives are aspirated in most varieties (exceptions include Bavarian-Austrian varieties). The aspiration is strongest in the onset of a stressed syllable (such as Taler ), weaker in the onset of an unstressed syllable (such as Vater ), and weakest in the syllable coda (such as in Saat ). The lenis consonants are voiceless in most southern varieties of German. For clarity, they are often transcribed as . The nature of the phonetic difference between the voiceless lenis consonants and the similarly voiceless fortis consonants is controversial. It is generally described as a difference in articulatory force, and occasionally as a difference in articulatory length; for the most part, it is assumed that one of these characteristics implies the other. In most varieties of German, the opposition between fortis and lenis is neutralized in the syllable coda, due to terminal devoicing (Auslautverhärtung). A few southern varieties of German, such as Swiss German, present an exception to this. In various central and southern varieties, the opposition between fortis and lenis is also neutralized in the syllable onset; sometimes just in the onset of stressed syllables, sometimes in all cases. The pair is not considered a fortis-lenis pair, but a simple voiceless-voiced pair, as remains voiced in all varieties, including the Southern varieties that devoice the lenes. Generally, the southern is realized as the voiced approximant . However there are southern varieties which differentiate between a fortis (such as in sträflich from Middle High German stræflich) and a lenis ( , such as in höflich from Middle High German hovelîch); this is analogous to the opposition of fortis ( ) and lenis . Vowels Notes: #Short occur only in unstressed syllables of loanwords, for instance in Ps'y'ch'o'm'''e'trie'' ('psychometry'). They are usually considered complementary allophones together with their long counterparts which cannot occur in unstressed syllables. #The schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables, for instance in b'''e'setz'e'''n 'occupy'. It is often considered a complementary allophone together with which cannot occur in unstressed syllables. If a sonorant follows in the syllable coda, the schwa often disappears so that the sonorant becomes syllabic, for instance Kiss'en'' 'pillow', Es'el'' ('donkey'). Before , this is realized as in many varieties, for instance bess'er'' ('better'). #The long open-mid front unrounded vowel is merged with the close-mid front unrounded vowel in many varieties of standard German. Examples: ''Äh're ('ear wheat, etc.')—''Eh're ('honour'), and ''Bä'ren ('bears')—''B'ee'ren'' ('berries') are pairs of homophones for many speakers who will use and indiscriminately. The phonological status of has been the source of much contention in phonological literature for a number of reasons: (1) the insertion of a phoneme is an irregularity in a vowel system that otherwise has pairs of long and tense vs. short and lax vowels such as vs. ; (2) it has been stated that in Standard German is due more to a hypercorrective, stage-pronunciation oriented (Bühnendeutsch) view than to a consistent differentiation in actual vernacular—while some dialects (Mundarten) do have an opposition of vs. , there is little agreement across dialects as to exactly which lexical items should be pronounced with and which with ; (3) it is plausible to assume that is spelling pronunciation (rather than an "original" feature of the language)—that is, an attempt on part of the speakers to "speak as it is printed" (sprechen wie gedruckt) and to differentiate the spellings e'' and ''ä (that is, users of the language license the appearance of e'' and ''ä in the written by making them distinct in the spoken language); (4) many speakers with an otherwise fairly standard idiolect find it rather difficult to utter longer passages with all the s and s in the right places; such persons apparently have to picture the spellings of the words in question which impedes the flow of speech. The vowels are often analyzed according to a tenseness contrast, being the tense vowels and their lax counterparts. Like the English checked vowels, the German lax vowels require to be followed by a consonant, with the notable exception of (which is however absent in many varieties). In order to apply the division into pairs of tense and lax to all German vowels, is sometimes considered the lax counterpart of tense . Diphthongs The German diphthongs are , for instance in Ei 'egg', S'''au' 'sow', ''n'eu'' 'new'. Occasionally, these are transcribed as . Instead of the transcription , the transcription is used as well. Marginally, there occur some more diphthongs, for instance * in interjections such as pf'ui'' , and in loanwords, among others, as in * F'''euille'ton'' , often , , * H'''o'mep'a'''ge , often , * Cr'oi'ssant , , . Usually, these are not counted among the German diphthongs as German speakers often feel they are distinct marks of ‘foreign words’ (Fremdwörter). In the varieties where speakers vocalize to in the syllable coda (see below), a diphthong ending in may be formed with virtually every vowel, for instance in T'''or' 'gate' or in ''W'ür'de 'dignity'. Syllables Stress =Morphology= Nominals Nouns in German are divided in three grammatical genders, called masculine, feminine and neuter. These three genders are reflected in all nominal declension, affecting the declension of articles, adjectives and pronouns. Gender is an intrinsic formal characteristic of nouns, not related, in principle, to any lexical trait of nouns. Gender in German is primarily formal, that is, it is merely a grammatical category of nouns, not determined by sex or any other semantic characteristics. When a pronoun indicates a being that is has not yet been explicitly indicated, gender is conventionally chosen based on the following relation: masculine for male human beings, feminine for female human beings, neuter to the rest. However, any pronoun referring to a noun already introduced must have the same gender as that of the noun. For instance, when saying something like "she lives here", the correct form is sie wohnt hier, using the feminine form sie "he/she/it". But, if you are talking about a girl, which in German is Mädchen, a neuter noun, you have to say: es wohnt hier, using the neuter form es "he/she/it", because it refers back to a neuter noun. There are, however, groups of words in which noun seems to be related to sex. For instance, nouns denoting professions are always masculine, mostly ending in '-er', with a feminine form obtained by means of the suffix '-in'. Nouns Definiteness Definitines in nouns is indicated by means of the articles (see below). Gender As indicated above, nouns in German are divided in three genders, viz., masculine, feminine and neuter. Gender is not related at all with sex or to whether the noun names an animated or inanimated being. However, some features seem to be related to gender, either determining it or being determined by it. *nouns denoting human male beings (profession, nationality, kinship) are mostly masculine. *nouns denoting human female beings (profession, nationality, kinship) are mostly feminine. **a great number of these is derived from the corresponding masculine form by adding the suffix '-in'. There are also some endings which determine the gender of the noun. Number German nouns have two numbers, singular and plural. Plural is indicated by means of endings added to the noun or with changes to the last vowel of the original form. A zero ending is also used, resulting in nouns with a single form for both singular and plural, as well as nouns in which the only difference between singular and plural is the vowel of the last syllable. There are several plural endings in use, and telling which one is to be used with each noun is impossible as there are no established rules. One must learn the plural form for each noun. The most common plural endings for German nouns are: '-' (no ending), '-e', '-en', '-n', '-er', '-s'. The vowel changes (called Umlaut) consist in adding a dieresis to the vowel of the last syllable, in case the original vowel is a''', '''o or u'''. The same as with the ending, the occurrence of '''Umlaut in plural forms is not facultative or predictable, being an intrinsic trait of each noun. So, representing Umlaut by ¨''', we can set the following '''plural forms for German nouns: #'''-''' (no ending) #'''-e''' #'''-en''' #'''-n''' #'''-er''' #'''-s''' #'¨-' (no ending) #'¨-e' #'¨-en' #'¨-n' #'¨-er' #'¨-s' German dictionaries always indicate the plural form for each noun, either in full or abbreviated. Some examples: *'Mann' "man", plural: Männer "men" *'Frau' "woman", plural: Frauen "women" *'Fenster' "window", plural: Fenster "windows" *'Baum' "tree", plural: Bäume "trees" *'Auto' "car", plural: Autos "cars" *'Hahn' "cock", plural: Hähne "cocks" *'Bleistift' "pencil", plural: Bleistifte "pencils" Although there is no rule for plural, feminine nouns generally have their plural form in '-en'. Case German nouns decline for four cases, viz.: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. However, nouns themselves do not clearly indicate cases, with two exceptions. The task of clearly marking the cases is carried out by articles, adjectives and pronouns. Only two cases are thoroughly indicated in nouns: #the genitive singular, but only in masculine and neuter nouns, marked by the ending '-(e)s'; and #the dative plural, for all nouns except those with plural in '-s', marked by the ending '-n' So, for most nouns, the following cases are not marked at all: #nominative singular and plural #accusative singular and plural #genitive singular for feminine nouns #genitive plural #dative singular #dative plural for nouns with plural ending in '-s' It is hard to predict when the genitive singular ending for masculine and neuter nouns is '-es' or when it is '-s'. There are even nouns which admit both endings. Also, there are some masculine and neuter nouns with genitive singular with the endings '-en' and '-ens'. So, dictionaries generally indicate the form of the genitive singular for masculine and neuter nouns. "Weak" Nouns There is, however, one group of nouns - mostly masculine - which mark all cases except the nominative singular with the ending '-en'. This group includes masculine nouns derived from adjectives. These are also indicated in dictionaries. Sample Declensions Articles The articles in German are the definite der/'die'/'das' and the indefinite ein/eine. Definite The definite article has roughly the same uses as its corresponding "the" in English. Its main uses are: It agrees in number, gender and case with the noun modified by it. As with other nominal classes, the three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - share a common form for the plural. Indefinite The indefinite article has roughly the same uses as its corresponding "a/an" in English. Its main uses are: It agrees in gender and case with the noun modified by it, being used exclusively in the singular. Negative German has also a word which, although being used to make negative sentences the same way as a negative adverb, behaves itself as an article, both in placement and in declension. It follows the declension of the indefinite article, with regular endings for the plural. Adjectives Predicative German adjectives in Predicative use are not declined, keeping their original, base form. Ex.: *'Dieser Mann ist alt' (masculine) "This man is old" *'Diese Stadt ist alt' (feminine) "This town is old" *'Dieses Buch ist alt' (neuter) "This book is old" *'Diese Männer sind alt' (plural) "These man are old" *'Diese Städte sind alt' (plural) "These town are old" *'Diese Bücher sind alt' (plural) "These book are old" Attributive German attributive adjectives precede the noun they modify and agree in gender, number and case with them. Declension The declension of adjectives in German is affected by the presense or absense of accompanying determiners such as articles and pronouns. There are three types of declension: #The "strong" inflection, for use when the adjective is not preceded by any determiner #The "weak" inflection, for use when the adjective is preceded by a determiner of the "strong" type such as the definite article or the demonstrative pronouns. #The "mixed" inflection, for use when the adjective is preceded by a determiner of the "weak" type such as the indefinite article or the possessive pronouns. The "strong" inflection is so called because it contains the most expressive endings, resembling those of the definite article, allowing the adjective to indicate alone the number, gender and case with little ambiguity. The "weak" inflection has this name because its endings (exclusively '-e' and '-en') have almost no features for indication of gender, number or case. It is so because it is used with determiners of the "strong" type, whose endings already carry enough information for that. The "mixed" inflection is exactly what the name says. It is half the same as the strong inflection and half the same as the weak inflection. =Uses = The "weak" inflection is used after: #the definite article der/'die'/'das' #the demonstrative pronouns dieser, jener #the determiners solcher (such), jeder (each), welcher The "mixed" inflection is used after: #the indefinite article ein #the possessive pronouns mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer #the negative determiner kein =Rules = There are some rules for filling up the declension tables for adjectives. #Masculine Accusative has always '-en'. #Dative Plural has always '-en'. #All plural forms accompanied by a determiner (that is, "weak" and "mixed" declensions) have always '-en'. #Except for masculine, accusative is always the same as the corresponding nominative. #Nominative singular for the weak declension is always '-e'. #Nominative singular for the remaining declensions follows the strong endings of the definite article. #Dative and genitive accompanied by a determiner (that is, "weak" and "mixed" declensions) have always '-en'. These seven rules may be condensed to three rules: #Masculine accusative singular, all plural forms accompanied by a determiner and all dative and genitive forms accompanied by a determiner (that is, "weak" and "mixed" declensions) have always '-en'. #Nominative singular for the weak declension is always '-e'. #Nominative singular and accusative singular for the remaining declensions follows the strong endings of the definite article. You can also remind the following: #The "strong" declension follows the endings of the definite article, except for the genitive singular which has '-en'. #The "weak" declension has '-e' for nominative singular and accusative singular, except for the masculine accusative; other cases have always '-en'. #The "mixed" inflection copies the nominative and accusative singular from the "strong" declension, and all other cases (all in '-en') from the "mixed" declension. In fact, many analyses don't accept the existence of a "mixed" declension, considering it simply a situation in which partly the "strong", partly the "mixed" inflection is used. =Examples = Degrees Comparative and superlative degrees for German adjectives are formed by means of suffixes. Short adjectives with any of the vowels a''', '''o and u''' in the last syllable suffer Umlaut. There are a few adjectives with irregular comparative and superlative forms. Comparative The comparative form of adjectives is obtained by addin the suffix '''-er. Short adjectives with one of the vowels a''', '''o, u''' in the last syllable also undergo Umlaut. The comparison complement is introduced by the conjunction '''als. Ex.: =Predicative = *'Sie ist schöner als du.' "She is more beautiful than you." *'Dieses Buch ist teuerer als jenes.' "This book is more expensive than that one." *'Du wirst größer als ich.' "You are getting taller than me." =Attributive = The resulting comparative form, when used with attributive function, behaves like a regular adjective on its own, being inflected regularly. Ex.: *'dieser schönere Frau' "this more beautiful woman" *'ein teureres Buch' "a more expensive book" *'kein größerer Junge' "no taller boy" =Inflection = The table below shows both the attributive and the predicative form for the comparative of some regular adjectives and for the irregular ones. Superlative =Predicative = For superlative adjectives in a predicative function, the suffix '-sten' is added, and the adjective is preceded by a combination of preposition and article am. Ex.: *'Sie ist am schönsten.' "She is the most beautiful." *'Dieses Buch ist am teuersten.' "This book is the most expensive." *'Du wirst am größten.' "You are becoming the tallest." =Attributive = The superlative form for adjectives in an attributive function receive the suffix '-st' and then the endings of the "weak" inflection, being always preceded by a definite article. Ex.: *'Sie ist die schönste Frau.' "She is the most beautiful woman." *'Das ist das teuerste Buch.' "This is the most expensive book." *'Du bist der größte Junge.' "You are the tallest boy." =Inflection = The table below shows both the attributive and the predicative form for some regular adjectives and for the irregular ones. Pronouns Personal Personal pronouns have specific forms for the four cases. Third person personal pronouns have different forms for each gender in the singular. Second Person (Formal vs. Informal) The forms indicated above for second person (du, dich, deiner, dir; ihr, euch, euer) are used only in familiar, very informal speech. Formal treatment requires the use of the 3rd person plural, which is capitalized in writing. So: Whether to use the formal or informal treatment is a complex subject, which can be influenced by a large number of factors such as age, hierarchy, situation or other things. It is advised to always use the formal treatment, switching to the informal treatment only when expressely asked or allowed to do so. The use of formal treatment affects all aspects of agreement. Personal pronouns, possessives and verbs must agree with the 3rd person plural form. Compare: Possessive Possessives, both adjectives and pronouns, are as follows. The polite form for the second person, both singular and plural, uses the 3rd person plural form, capitalized: Ihr. All possessives are declined as kein. Note: '''euer' loses its last '-e-' before endings: eure, euren &c.'' Demonstrative Demonstratives in German, both adjective and pronoun, are the following: *'dieser', corresponding basically to English "this" *'jener', corresponding basically to English "that" They are declined according to the definite article. Interrogative Relative Indefinite Numbers Cardinal Ordinal Verbs Notions Time Aspect Person Mood Modality Classes Regular Conjugation Irregular Verbs Undeclined Prepositions Conjunctions Adverbs =Syntax= Category:Grammars Category:German Category:Deutsch